The Next Win
by AndAllThatMishigas
Summary: On a rather typical Saturday afternoon at the Bartlet farm, Jed receives a letter that changes his life.


Author's Note: I was asked for Nobel Prize fluff, so here you go!

 **The Next Win**

It was a rare Saturday afternoon in October that Abbey could be home at the farm with three year old Zoey, nine year old Ellie, and moody sixteen year old Liz instead of being called into the hospital on some emergency or sleeping off a twelve hour surgery. It was even rarer that Jed was also home, rather than wandering through half of New Hampshire in the last few weeks of his campaign for Congress.

Abbey went out to get the mail, and when she came back, she discovered that Jed had come out of his study.

"That son of a bitch!"

Her head whipped up. "Jed, watch your mouth! Zoey is napping!" she scolded.

"Good, so she won't hear me," he grumbled.

Abbey glared at him. "I'd rather you not wake her up with swearing, if you don't mind."

Liz came down the stairs. "Who's a son of a bitch?" she asked.

"Elliot Rousch. And Elizabeth, I don't like you using that kind of language," Jed said, frowning at his eldest daughter.

"Why not? You do it. And so does Mom."

"Well, I don't like her talking like that either," he replied.

"You're an ass," Abbey quipped as she walked past him on her way to the kitchen, going through the stack of mail in her hand.

Jed chuckled slightly. "Elizabeth, do as we say, not as we do."

Liz just rolled her eyes. "Dad, can I borrow the car?"

"Why?"

"I have a date with Doug."

"Who is Doug?"

Liz let a breath out very slowly. "He's this guy I know. He's very nice. He has good grades. He's seventeen. This will be our second date."

"And why isn't he picking you up?"

"I'm not sure that I want him to know where we live. And I definitely don't want you badgering him until I decide if I really like him. So I'd like to find out. Which requires me to borrow the car and go out with him," she explained.

"Okay, fine." Jed took the car keys off the table by the door and tossed them to his daughter. "Be home by ten."

"Ten!?"

From the kitchen, Abbey yelled, "Elizabeth, your father said ten!" She knew how Liz had a tendency to negotiate with Jed and get him to give in to anything she wanted.

"Ten," Jed repeated firmly.

Liz walked out the door in a huff.

Meanwhile, Abbey had thrown out the junk mail and opened the bills and left them on the kitchen table so Jed could take them to his study later. But there was one more envelope she noticed, addressed to Dr. Josiah Edward Bartlet. It wasn't a bill. The return address said Stockholm. And it dawned on her. She knew what it was from. "Jed!" she shouted, her eyes wide, staring at the seal on the envelope.

Jed came to her call. "What is it, honey? Don't shout, or you'll wake Zoey," he reminded her. He saw her face, white with shock. "Abbey, what is it?" His voice had more concern in it this time.

Abbey wordlessly handed him the envelope. He furrowed his brow as he opened it, unsure what on earth he could be getting from Sweden. But then he saw it. The gold seal atop the letterhead with the black script beneath: Nobel Prize.

"Oh my god," he whispered.

"Is it…?" she asked, coming to stand beside him. She saw the same thing he did. "Oh my god."

Jed read the letter aloud, informing him that he had been selected to receive the Nobel Prize in the Science of Economics at the presentation ceremony in Sweden in December. Before he got to the end, Abbey screamed in excitement and started hugging and kissing him. He put the letter down on the table and reciprocated her sentiments.

"Jed, you won the Nobel Prize!" she exclaimed, as if saying it out loud would make it seem more real.

He couldn't really speak. He couldn't believe it. Yes, his book had gotten quite a lot of recognition when it had first been published, but that was a few years ago now. He'd been in politics for far too long to pay any attention to his reputation in the economics world. What had started as a radical paper at the London School of Economics—where he'd nearly been expelled for defending his theories—had turned into a doctoral thesis and a book that had taken him almost ten years to get published. And now…the Nobel Prize!? It was too good to be true.

Unable to fully wrap his brain around everything, Jed kissed his wife deeply. Abbey pulled away after a few moments before they got too carried away. "We can celebrate later tonight," she promised, giving him one more peck. "You should call your mother."

Jed got a sinking feeling in his stomach. If only this letter had come one month earlier. Then John Bartlet would have known his eldest son won a Nobel Prize.

"Daddy, did you win a prize?"

He turned to see Ellie come into the kitchen tentatively. He smiled at her. "Yes, Eleanor, I did."

"Does that mean you're going to Washington now?"

Abbey smiled. "No, Ellie, that's the election. That's not until next month. That's the next thing your daddy is gonna win. But this is a prize for economics. Remember when we would visit Daddy at Dartmouth sometimes? He's very smart and now he gets the biggest prize in the whole world for it," she explained to her daughter.

Ellie smiled. "Congratulations!"

Jed laughed. She was such a brilliant child. He was amazed at what her young mind could understand. "Ellie, how would you like to go to Sweden in December?"

"Really?"

"Yeah! I want you to come with your mom and me." He stroked her sandy-colored curls as she looked up at him with her big green eyes.

"Zoey and Lizzie too?"

Abbey shook her head. "No, Zoey is too little, sweet girl. Liz can come if she wants to, but it's harder to leave school when you're older. We'll ask her tomorrow."

Ellie thought for a moment before asking, "Can we meet ABBA in Sweden?"

"I doubt it, but we'll see," Abbey replied with a grin. She had spent much of Ellie's youth singing various songs from the band to her. Abbey glanced over at Jed, who was still grinning madly. "Ell, why don't you go wake up Zoey from her nap?"

"Really?" Ellie lit up. She adored her baby sister more than anything in the world and treasured any minute she could spend alone with little Zoey.

Abbey nodded to her daughter and watched her race out of the room and back upstairs. She turned to her husband and started fiddling with the collar on his polo shirt. "Go call your mother, and then go call Mark. He'll want to get the news out to the electorate as soon as possible. Because Elliot Rousch is a son of a bitch, but there's no way he's going to beat a Nobel Laureate."

"I hadn't thought of that!" he replied excitedly.

She chuckled. "You would have figured it out. But the sooner you're done working, the sooner we can go upstairs and I can rip this shirt off you."

Jed beamed. He knew how Abbey felt about him in a polo shirt, though he still wasn't quite sure why. He wouldn't complain about that. He gave her one more kiss. "I'll be in my study."

Abbey smiled as he walked out of the kitchen. She turned and realized that he hadn't taken the award letter with him. She read through it and realized he hadn't read the whole thing. He was splitting the prize. With Dr. Yosh Takahashi. Jed's arch rival from LSE. They'd been competing for fifteen years. And now they were both being honored in the same year. Jed was going to be furious. Abbey sighed and folded the letter, putting it in the pile of bills. She'd tell him tomorrow after church. No reason to spoil their fun now.


End file.
